The Great Stack is the defining image of Handa Island — a massive pillar of Torridonian sandstone standing apart from the main cliffs on the island's north coast, rising some 120 metres from the sea. In summer it is encrusted with nesting seabirds: guillemots pack the ledges in their thousands, razorbills occupy the narrower crevices, and kittiwakes plaster their mud-and-grass nests onto near-vertical faces. The noise and smell are both extraordinary.
The viewpoint above the Stack is reached via the clifftop path on the north side of the island, perhaps 45 minutes on foot from the landing beach. The sandstone geology here is ancient — around 1,000 million years old — and the layered, reddish-orange cliffs show clear bedding planes that tilt gently to the southeast. On a clear day the view west takes in the open Atlantic; to the northeast, the mountains of the Assynt wilderness crowd the horizon.